Contents

Biology

Slowpoke is a pink Pokémon that resembles a cross between a salamander and a hippopotamus. It has vacant eyes that never seem focused, curled ears, and a rounded, tan muzzle. It has four legs, each of which ends in a single white claw. Its long, tapering tail has a white tip. This tail drips a sweet, sappy substance that is attractive to many species of fish. Slowpoke uses the tail as a fishing lure. The tail often breaks off, but it will grow back. In Alola, its tail is often dried and used in home cooked stews.

Slowpoke has notoriously dim intellect, and often forgets what it was doing. It takes a long time to respond to outside stimuli. For example, it can take up to five seconds to process pain and can take an entire day to notice when its tail has been bitten. Slowpoke is commonly found at the water's edge. In some places, it is believed that Slowpoke's yawn causes rain. This Pokémon is worshiped in those areas.

In A Crowning Achievement, a group of Slowpoke were trying to reach a King's Rock to evolve into Slowking in order to help find a better habitat for the group. In this episode, a Slowpoke evolved into a Slowking when its head was bitten by a Shellder while it was wearing the King's Rock.

Multiple Slowpoke appeared in a flashback in Enlighten Up!. The episode also introduced practitioners of a religion similar to Buddhism that see Slowpoke's empty head as a sign of enlightenment and worship by meditating along with Slowpoke and Slowbro.

Four Slowpoke appeared in Securing the Future!, with two under the ownership of different Trainers and the other two being wild. They joined the rest of Alola in showering Necrozma with light so it could return to its true form.

In the Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga

Giovanni stole Slowpoke from Kurt prior to Find Slowpoke!! in order to profit from its tail as it is worth a lot of money. Kurt was able to retrieve the Slowpoke from Giovanni before Giovanni was able to get its tail.

Japanese sprites

Trivia

The Japanese and international Pokémon Silver have different sprites for Slowpoke, with the Japanese versions having a fatter and striped belly similar to that which Slowbro and Slowking sport. It is unknown why this was changed. However, its striped underside is still partially visible in all of its Gold and Crystal sprites. This striped belly does not appear to be a true error, as it has been seen in artwork by Ken Sugimori, though it is from Generation I.

Like Mantyke, Slowpoke evolves when another Pokémon attaches to it; however, this was only seen in the anime. Proximity-based evolution such as requiring Mantyke and Remoraid to be in the same party were not introduced until Generation IV. Despite the fact that other Pokémon, such as Feebas, have been given additional evolution methods for evolving into the same Pokémon, Shellder still has no bearing on Slowpoke's evolution.

Slowpoke is the only Pokémon whose multiple evolutions have different total EV yields: Slowbro has an EV yield of 2, while Slowking has an EV yield of 3.

Slowpoke is the only Pokémon whose National Pokédex number is the same as its weight in pounds when rounded.

Despite numerous Pokédex entries stating its lack of response to a bite on its tail, in Pokémon Snap it is shown to quickly react to Shellder's bite. This may be due to Shellder's venom stimulating a quicker response, or simply an error or game mechanic to speed the process along.

The Pokémon Company posted a Slowpoke-themed reggae music video onto their Japanese channel titled What's Going on, Yadon?. The song was later dubbed and posted to the English-language channel under the title of Slowpoke Song.

Though the species has appeared repeatedly, no Slowpoke has ever been seen using an attack in the anime.

Name origin

Slowpoke is literally slowpoke, a term for someone who is slow. It can be also a combination of slow and poke (an abbreviation of Pokémon).

Yadon may be a combination of 宿借り yadokari (hermit crab) and donkan (thickheaded or stolid), whereas 鈍 don means slow, dull, or stupid. Alternatively, it may also derive from 宿主 yadonushi ([parasitic] host), based on its relationship with Shellder in its evolutions.